World’s 50 Best Bars 2023 – co-founder of No 1 bar, Sips in Barcelona, shares his recipe for success; 10 Asian bars ranked
- Sips in Barcelona is named No 1 in the World’s Best Bar 2023 ranks at an awards ceremony in Singapore, a year after it received the award for highest climber
- Simone Caporale emphasised the importance of continually striving for excellence as he accepted the award. 10 of the 50 bars ranked are in East Asian cities
Hong Kong may have hosted the Asia’s 50 Best Bars awards earlier this July, but it was in Singapore that the globe’s leading bartenders congregated this week for the main event.
The 15th edition of the World’s 50 Best Bars awards was held on Tuesday at Pasir Panjang Power Station. It was the first time the announcement of the global ranking of bars had been hosted in Asia.
The list is compiled through voting by a panel of more than 650 industry players from around the world and is related to the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards. Both brands are owned by digital, high-value data and events business William Reed.
In a similar format to years past, the ceremony featured a countdown of the 50 best bars with a number of special awards scattered between.
This year’s ranking featured bars from 28 cities, and 11 new entries.
It was a roll-call that began with Galaxy Bar in Dubai garnering 50th spot – a fall from its ranking of 45th in 2022 – and ended with a new Spanish champion knocking the first-placed bar in 2022 down three places.
Sips in Barcelona, fronted by Marc Alvarez and Simone Caporale – the latter was in Hong Kong and Macau in July for various guest bar shifts and workshops – climbed two spots to wrench another Barcelona bar, Paradiso, from top position.
In 2022, Sips was named highest climber in the bar awards after surging 34 places from its 2021 ranking to No 3. It’s quite an achievement for the bar to go from 37th to 1st in two years.
Then again, it’s not Caporale’s first time in the limelight: between 2010 and 2015, he was part of the team that took The Artesian at The Langham in London to No 1 on the World’s 50 Best Bars list, a position it held for four years in a row from 2012.
“We would like to say we are a small bar,” Caporale said as he accepted Sips’ award on stage in Singapore alongside Alvarez. “We opened in very uncertain times, but with the dream to prove that we could do something. And that’s what matters.
“When you can impress yourself, and you can prove yourself every day on a daily basis, this is the most important thing, at least in this industry.”
Atlas in Singapore – known for its superlative gin collection and art deco interiors – was the first bar in Asia to receive its ranking, re-entering the list at No 48.
That made it one of three Singapore venues on the list, with Jigger & Pony ranking highest at No 14, while Sago House debuted in 32nd spot. Night Hawk, while not ranked on the 50, received the World’s 50 Best Bars inaugural award for best bar design.
The 2022 rankings featured only one Tokyo venue, Bar Benfiddich, which this year climbed 11 spots to 37th. Another, the SG Club, re-entered the list one place above, in 36th. Still, Japanese bars had a relatively poor showing, given their dominance of the Asia’s Best Bars list, with five of the 50 places going to Tokyo nightspots and two others, Lamp Bar in Nara and Bee’s Knees in Kyoto, also ranked.
Hong Kong bars Argo and COA – the latter adjudged best bar in Asia for three years in a row by Asia’s 50 Best Bars voters – each retained a spot, although both were ranked lower than in 2022.
Bangkok’s BKK Social Club, ranked 13th, is the highest ranked bar on the World’s 50 Best Bars list; on the 2023 Asia’s 50 Best Bars list, it ranked two spots behind COA.
Zest, in Seoul, South Korea, was a crowd favourite at the Asia’s 50 Best Bars ceremony earlier in the summer, receiving the highest climber award by entering the list at No 5.
It achieved a similar feat in the world rankings, debuting in 18th place.
Given how fellow climber Sips’ fortunes played out in 2022 and 2023, might we see the Seoul cocktail bar – aided by the global thirst for all things Korean – make history next year?
The World’s 50 Best Bars 2023
New entries to the list are marked with an asterisk (*)
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Sips, Barcelona
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Double Chicken Please, New York
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Handshake Speakeasy, Mexico City
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Paradiso, Barcelona
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Connaught Bar, London
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Little Red Door, Paris
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Licorería Limantour, Mexico City
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Tayer + Elementary, London
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Alquimico, Cartagena, Colombia
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Himkok, Oslo
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Tres Monos, Buenos Aires
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Line, Athens
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BKK Social Club, Bangkok
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Jigger & Pony, Singapore
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Maybe Sammy, Sydney
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Salmon Guru, Madrid
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Overstory, New York
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Zest, Seoul *
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Mahaniyom Cocktail Bar, Bangkok *
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COA, Hong Kong
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Drink Kong, Rome
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Hanky Panky, Mexico City
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Caretaker’s Cottage, Melbourne *
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Cafe La Trova, Miami
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Baba Au Rum, Athens
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Cochinchina, Buenos Aires
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Katana Kitten, New York
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Satan’s Whiskers, London
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Wax On, Berlin *
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Floreria Atlantico, Buenos Aires
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Roda Huset, Stockholm *
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Sago House, Singapore *
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Frene E Frizioni, Rome *
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Argo, Hong Kong
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A Bar With Shapes For a Name, London
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The SG Club, Tokyo
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Bar Benfiddich, Tokyo
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The Cambridge Public House, Paris *
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Panda & Sons, Edinburgh
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Mimi Kakushi, Dubai *
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Scarfes Bar, London *
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1930, Milan
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Carnaval, Lima, Peru
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L’Antiquario, Naples, Italy
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Baltra Bar, Mexico City
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Locale Firenze, Florence
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The Clumsies, Athens
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Atlas, Singapore
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Jewel of the South, New Orleans *
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Galaxy Bar, Dubai
